In an attempt to increase reader participation, we are switching to the DISQUS system effective with articles created today. by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Just 18 months ago, we switched to vBulletin for our reader comment system in the hope that it would encourage the development of a more vibrant community here on the Nolan Chart. Unfortunately, that experiment proved to be ineffective.
So, today we are switching all new articles going forward to the DISQUS system. This system is more easily accessed by a much larger range of readers. Anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, OpenID, or DISQUS account will be able to login to the reader comment system without creating a reader account. For those of you behind firewalls that prevent you from participating in social networking (such as some work environments), the DISQUS account option will most often work the best. OpenID is the second option you can try, since that accesses a wide range of accounts besides social networking.
The goal here is two-fold. First, we want to make participation much easier. DISQUS is widely viewed as a very user-friendly commenting system, and it appears on thousands of websites all around the world.
Second, we want to make sure that Google News continues to spider and include our articles in their directory. One thing that Google News checks for is to insure that articles read like articles, not like reader comments. So, we obviously want to keep our reader comments separate from the articles in order to adhere to Google's rules on this. DISQUS does an excellent job of keeping reader comments separate while at the same time making those comments directly available on the article page.
Older articles will continue to display past reader comments using the retired commenting systems. Any comments regarding your experiencing using the new system will be very much appreciated.
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The views expressed
in this article are those of Walt Thiessen only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Walt Thiessen is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
